Micah Mobley, new pastor of Faith Community Church of God, stands in the entryway of the church. Photo by Cindy Klepper.

Much like Micah Mobley wasn’t looking to enter the ministry after careers in the banking and restaurant businesses, he wasn’t looking to leave the church he’d pastored in Hoopeston, IL, for seven years.

But here he is, in Huntington, pastoring Faith Community Church of God and loving both his new community and his new church.

“This is where God wants us,” he says.

At Faith Community, he’s following in the footsteps of Rev. Steve Stull, who retired a year ago after serving as the church’s pastor for 15 years. Mobley connected with the Huntington church through an associate who knew Faith Community was looking for a new pastor.

“We weren’t looking,” Mobley says. He and his family were happy with their life in the small Illinois town. “I wanted to stay there forever.”

But they prayed about the possible move and visited Huntington. One impediment, the sale of their house in Hoopeston, was removed before the house was even listed.

“The incoming school superintendent called and asked to look at the house,” Mobley says, and ended up buying it.

So the family made the move. Their three kids — one each in high school, junior high and elementary school — have gotten involved in sports and other school activities; his wife, Carla Mobley, was hired as a co-teacher for bio-literature in Huntington North High School; and “a house we really fell in love with became available.”

After having shaken up his own life, Mobley is now ready to shake up Faith Community, a non-denominational church just west of Huntington.

He’d like to see the church grow from its current membership of about 125 and says he’s already seeing new people getting involved. He wants to see the church itself become more involved in their community and their neighborhoods.

“We’re looking for ways to do that,” he says.

He says he wants to have an impact on the community by connecting people with Christ and the church.“I’ve only got a limited time here on this earth and I want to have an impact,” he says.

He says Christ and the church have already had a major impact on his life. He grew up in Mt. Carmel, IL, and earned a degree in accounting from the nearby University of Evansville. He went into the banking business, owned some restaurants and says he generally “made a mess of my life … I realized I needed to make some changes.”

He started doing some speaking at church and eventually, at the suggestion of his wife, earned a master’s degree in ministry. The church in Hoopeston was his first position as pastor.

Faith Community Chur-ch of God is at 3615 N. Norwood Rd., Huntington, and offers services for all ages each Sunday at 10:15 a.m. Kids in kindergarten through fifth grade get a full breakfast on Sunday mornings, he says, and parents can call the church at 356-5476 to have their kids picked up by the church bus.

Warehouse, a group for kids in preschool through fifth grade, meets on Thursday evenings and Bible study groups are open to all.

Faith Community will also host an Indoor Trick-N-Treat evening on Monday, Oct. 30, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. That activity, which drew 600 people last year, is open to the community and will include gifts and candy for the kids.